A Ghost of Love in the Machine
by Joshua Falken
Summary: Two souls found each other in Cybertronics's computer system... one the mind of a mecha-child... the other the ghost of a dead roboticist...
1. Chapter 1 The Ghost in the Machine

A Ghost of Love in the Machine  
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to Matrix Refugee and Ista Dreamer for beta-read this chapter :-)

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Chapter 1 - The Ghost in the Machine

I walked through the empty streets of the Dark City. I looked upward, the lights of the windows were lit, but they were empty. I sighed and the sound echoed through the street.

There was only me.

I was alone because I had decided to be alone like this.

If I wished I could walk among thousands of people... but they would not to be real... the way I was not real anymore.

When I arrived at the end of the street, I looked at a clock on the roof of a bookstore. 10:27 A.M.

I could see her walking nervously through the corridors of Cybertronics in the direction of Room 101 on the thirteenth floor. She was always nervous when she came to talk with me -- to see if I was still behaving well...

She is nervous because she is not sure of what I am.

And, to be honest... neither am I.

======

Cybertronics's computational psychologist, Jeanine Salla, went to Room 101 for her monthly session with... with who? Salla knew that she was not a common articlet, an A.I., like the ones that the dark-haired woman had helped to create... And she was definitely not an Orga...

What was she?

The psychologist sighed as she passed her entrance card in the reader of the door. "I think I will probably never discover what she is..." Salla thought. The dark-haired woman placed her right eye in the field of vision of the retina reader and she said for the security device:

"Salla, Jeanine M., Computational Psychologist, Department of Research and Development -- Level 5."

The door opened and revealed a room with black walls and soft illumination furnished with an armchair, a terminal and a holographic projector. Jeanine Salla sat down in the surprisingly comfortable armchair and looked at the terminal screen -- it just showed a clock marking 10:28 A.M. over the logotype of Cybertronics.

"If Professor Hobby knew about this, he would never had allowed it!" she thought, remembering the late chief roboticist of the company, victim of a heart attack two months ago, soon after the disappearance of the David model prototype. She sighed - she didn't know if she agreed with the comments that Hobby had been destroyed by his own creation, but she agreed that the loss of the original David model, created in the image of David Hobby, Allan's dead son, had broken something in the soul of the roboticist... in his dreams...

Salla looked at the clock: 10:29 AM. She breathed deeply and waited to speak with Cybertronics Corporation's biggest secret... With something that if people knew about, they would try to destroy... With a Spectrom.

======

The clock marked 10:30. I looked at the shop window of the bookstore, I arranged my hair and my beret, straightened my dress and disappeared from the streets of the Dark City... of my home... of my prison...

Through the security camera in Room 101, I saw that a dark-haired woman with mature eyes seated in the only armchair of the room. It was Dr. Jeanine Salla. I saw that she moved again in the armchair when a woman's hologram appeared in the center of the room. She was tall and thin, with long rose hair and pretty blue eyes, but her very proportionate face was a mask of neutrality and calm. Her radical appearance contrasted with the elegant yet conservative dress that she wore.

The holographic woman was me.

Dr. Salla smiled and greeted me:

"Good morning, Jem!"

"Good morning, Dr. Salla," I answered politely. Jem was my current name, the name for which Dr. Salla, my "analyst" (for lack of a better term), and Dr. Josianne Beller, the company's CEO and my owner, called me... I knew that before, when I was still an Orga, a human, I had another name... I was called Jerrica... Jerrica Benton, I think... For some reason, my memories are becoming more and more distant ... less important...

"How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, doctor. The works which I was suitable for were not difficult." Besides the security of the Cybertronics computer system, my nominal task, I also referred to the orders of Dr. Beller to investigate the files of Prof. Allan Hobby, previous CEO and chief roboticist.

"I understand... you were checking the firewalls of the net servers for a longer time than the usual... some specific reason for that?"

"No." Well, that was not entirely true: For some reason, I thought more and more about passing through the firewalls in direction of Global Grid -- even that I knew that I didn't have permission to do so. I only had permission to exist in the Corporation's Internal Network and in the Dark City, the VR world where I lived, created so that I forgot that I was only a record of a neural pattern in a quantum computer, that I was only a copy of the mind of an already dead woman...

That I was a Spectrom.

That I was a ghost in the machine.

======

One hour later, the conversation had ended and Dr. Salla went back to her office. She locked the door and placed her face in the hands.

"My God, what is she?" she thought, trying to find an answer. "What turns everything for the worst is that I met her before she become a Spectrom!" Jeanine had just been a trainee in Cybertronics when she met Dr. Jerrica Phillips-Benton, one of the founders of the company. About three months after beginning the brilliant engineer, Salla heard about the scientist's car accident and her death in the hospital some days later... Then, after all those years, the new CEO after Prof. Hobby's death, Dr. Josianne Beller, called her and ordered her to take care that that a certain A.I. of the company, Jem, would kept on the line... and Jeanine recognized the dead engineer in Jem.

'And she is starting to forget who she was when she was alive... She is becoming indifferent...' Jeanine didn't know if this had to do with the process that copied the mind of the roboticist in the network of the company or if it was simply a result of the manipulations that Beller had done to guarantess that "Jem didn't have too much initiative..." - since actually it had been Jem who had created a good part of the patents that kept Cybertronics as the leading company in the development of Artificial Intelligence...

"God help us!" Salla thought, aghast.

======

Meanwhile, Jem reported to a woman about 60 years old, despite her facade of pretending to be 40 years old, blond with cold blue eyes, and an authoritarian way about her. She was the master and, in certain way, the creator of Jem: Dr. Josianne Beller.

"Then, were you able to break the code that protected Hobby's files?"

"Yes, Dr. Beller. I have already transferred the data to you."

"Any problem in deceiving Centurion Mark IV?" The CEO asked, referring to the Cybertronics security system, created by Hobby.

"No, it was just a matter of distracting it with an ostensibl, even so inoffensive invasion."

"Very well, Jem. And the Project Miragebots?"

The holographic woman projected a picture of a humanoid, mechanic-like robot of great proportion and started to recite: "The modules of the android-automobile conversion are functional, but there are great problems in the development of the control system, since Mechas don't usually perform military work, due to First Law." Jem stopped for one moment, with a sensation similar to the inconvenience: the idea of a robotic system deliberately projected for the purpose to kill humans seriously disturbed her, even if she didn't get to point the reason of it.

"Alright, Jem. You can return to your functions."

The pink-haired woman disappeared, going back to the Dark City.

Josie Beller reclined in the chair of her office, happy with herself. She was not just finally CEO of Cybertronics, as of now she dictated the direction of the company's researches: finally Cybertronics could take advantage of the immense military market for robots, which Hobby had ignored for sentimental reasons before. And better still, her old rival, Jerrica, was developing the exact robots that Hobby and Jerrica Phillips-Benton once had said the company would never create!

Due, of course, to the Three Laws of the Robotics, there was no way of creating a military robot - the First Law would end up destroying the Mecha's brain before it could ever finish its mission! But the weak-hearted side of Hobby had discovered how to do that...

Beller activated the terminal on her desk.

"Hoskins, the model David model was already recovered?"

In the screen, a man with sinister features smiled and his face temporarily vanished to reveal a boy with clear hair, who looked fixedly for the screen, an expression of despair and sadness on his innocent face.

"There were problems with the recovery?"

"No, Miss Beller. It was easy to control it, even when it tried to flee from us to go back for its "Blue Fairy"." The man laughed with gibe.

Beller cut the communication.

Hobby had tried to create the perfect child. Beller would turn it into something more useful and lucrative.

The perfect killer.

She smiled.

* * *

To be continued...

What do you think?

Please, read and review! :-)


	2. Chapter 2 Encounter in the dark

A Ghost of Love in the Machine  
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to Matrix Refugee and Ista Dreamer for beta-read this chapter :-)

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Chapter 2 - Encounter in the Dark

I was in an illuminated place, with several people around me. They were seated at tables and they ate, talked and laughed. Except the man before me and myself. He had brown hair and green eyes, that had a sad and concerned shine that he didn't manage to hide. But those were the only distinguible details of his face. All the rest was a blur, along with all the other people. He held my right hand, that was on the table.

"Jerrica, don't worry... I know that you are disappointed, but..." the voice of that man, which I couldn't identify, became more and more distant.

Something hot and wet ran down my face. My gaze fell over a letter, which I thought for some reason had recently been opened. It was from something called Population Control...

"Dear Mrs. Benton... We regret to inform that your requisition to have a son was denied due to the fact that your genome didn't meet the standards established by the Population Control Regional Council..."

My left hand flew over the table and struck a glass. A scream of a woman echoed through the room. It was my voice. The glass dropped slowly toward the ground and broke in several pieces.

Then, the scene became difused and I opened the eyes in my apartment in the Dark City. My face continued to burn hot with something wet on it. In fifteen minutes I should go to Dr. Beller to inform her about the progress on Project Miragebots.

I stood up and I went to stand under the shower. While the water fell over me, I tried to diagnose my own dysfunction. What were those images that put itself upon my duties in my conscience? With the passing of the months, they have become more and more frequent... more disturbing, and at the same time, more distant.

Could my memories be lost in the database? I didn't know.

I left my shower, drying my body.

I fetched the black clothes that I always wore, I adjusted my hair and my beret. Then I went to the window of my apartment and looked out over my... "kingdom". The City was dark and without anybody, as always, extending for kilometers... Of course none of that was necessary: everything was just a simulation -- I didn't have a body, nor the real need to clean it... but a part of my mind insisted that... that I should go along with custom as if that world wasn't a counterfeit...

Then, I raised my right arm and I snapped my fingers. In that moment, I disappeared from the Dark City and I assumed my functions in the Cybertronics Computer Network.

======

Jeanine Salla went into the coffee room of the corporation's office, to take a very strong cup of coffee. She had spent the entire night working, talking with Kenshin, an A.I. that administered the Museum of the Meiji Age, in New Tokyo -- it seemed that the articlet was having hallucinations in which it was an swordsman from the beginning of the Meiji Age... He had even given a complete physical description of his alter ego: red hair, violet eyes, a scar in form of X on the left side of the face...

"Good morning, Dr. Salla." A woman's voice greeted her.

Jeanine lifted the eyes from her cup and she saw a young woman, about 28 years old, short red hair, penetrating blue eyes and a somewhat arrogant smile. Carefully, Jeanine answered.

"Good morning, Dr. Sutter."

Dr. Elizabeth Jane Sutter just nodded and went to the coffee machine, to make a capuccino. Jeanine observed her: both women were computational psychologists, having being educated in Bangalore World University and they had studied under Dr. Allen Hobby's direction... in different times, of course. For some reason, Jeanine didn't sympathize with Sutter: she was a little too cold and arrogant, in Salla's opinion.

It was not surprising that she was the right arm of Dr. Josianne Beller...

Elizabeth Jane Sutter finished her coffee and she left the room, walking thorugh the corridor until her boss's office. The Mecha-secretary informed her the arrival of the computational psychologist and quickly allowed her entrace. Jane Sutter saw the hologram of a tall pink-haired woman, dressed an elegant business suit, in the middle of the room, who stopped speaking the very moment that Sutter had entered.

"Good morning, Dr. Sutter."

"Good morning, Dr. Beller. I hope I am not interrupting anything."

"Don't worry. Actually, it is related with your work." Cybertronics's CEO turned to the holographic woman. "Go ahead, Jem."

Jem nodded. Behind her a screen lit up. "Automatic Factory #23 finished the prototype 2 - the Miragebot car-robot." Behind Jem, appeared the image of a black Sedan, a perfectly normal car, in a deserted factory warehouse. "Do you wish see it assuming the robotic form, Dra. Beller?"

"Yes, Jem."

The holographic woman closed her eyes while accessing the robot's systems and, one moment later, the black car became a gigantic android robot, with a plasma cannon locked into each arm. The general effect was impressive.

"As you can see, the mechanical part of the Prototype 2 works perfectly, but even so, a compatible brain for the planned use has been finding serious difficulties."

"And the prototype 1?"

"The prototype 1 -- airplane-robot -- it is still in construction. There were problems with positioning the turbojet engines."

"Very well. Return to your functions, Jem."

The holographic woman disappeared.

"What did you think, Sutter?"

"Really very impressive."

Josianne Beller rose of her chair and went to the window of the office. Without turning, she said to her employee.

"As you heard, we already produced a model of military robot which was perfectly functional - except, of course, for the quantum brain. The current architecture will reject any order that violates the First Law. And that is why you should analyze the systems of the David Prototype and discover how to copy its rage so we can use it in our robots." The blond CEO turned and she leaned on the table. "Sutter, it doesn't interest me how you do it. Find out what made that mecha-boy violate First Law any way that you can." The shine of the cold blue eyes became cruel. "Even if you have to cut out it in pieces. Am I clear?"

"Sure, Dr. Beller."

"Nor do I need to say that if you succeed, you will be well rewarded."

"Yes, I understand." And Sutter also understood the other consequence, what would happen in case of failure...

======

One week later, the worried-for-her-neck computational psychologist went to her restricted laboratory, on the twenty-second level of the Manhattan Research Unit. Her team worked with the recovered David prototype. Thousands of wires and cables were connected to the mecha-child's body, linking the immobile robot to the analysis systems of Cybertronics. Nobody seemed to care about the disillusion on the face of small Mecha.

"Any progress?"

"No Dr. Sutter." One of the programmers explained. "We didn't trace the memory banks of the android. The only thing that we detected are memories related to Monica Swinton, its imprinter, and to its neurotic fixation with the myth of the Blue Fairy." The psychologist thought with irony of her teacher's belief that a robot following a myth was a huge achievement for the field of the Artificial Intelligence... the faith in myths was the greatest human weakness!

Well, if David hadn't let them discover how he had come to react with rage that day in Hobby's office, they would make it become enraged again...

"Connect the robot with the Dark City."

"Yes, Dr. Sutter."

======

David opened his eyes and looked around, confused and afraid... Where was the Blue Fairy? And Teddy? What he was doing in the middle of that deserted creepy street? David tried to remember: He was pleading to the Blue Fairy, when bad men had broken the window of the amphibiocopter and they had...

"There he is!" A voice screamed behind him. David turned and was pushed down roughly by a boy. The Mecha-child fell to the ground. Other boys appeared and they began to humiliate him.

David ran through the street, trying to flee of his stalking tormentors. Why did they want to hurt him? Why?

======

All that day, Jane Sutter observed David's despair impassively. "Why he doesn't attack?" she wondered, questioning the intelligence of the android.

She looked at the clock. Time to return home.

"Turn off the reactive units and close down the simulation.". she ordered.

"Do you want us to remove it from the Dark City?"

"No, leave him there... he is not going anywhere." Sutter affirmed, turning her back to the screen.

======

It was raining outside of the snack bar. I observed the phenomenon while I "ate" a chocolate ice cream mechanically, while the boy behind the counter looked at me, while he cleaned a glass. Honestly, I didn't know why I insisted on that part of the simulation. A part of me liked that -- at least, I describe as "liking" the sensation that traveled my conscience.

But I didn't know why.

I shook my head while I got up and paid for the ice cream. The boy took the money and disappeared in a blur. I raised the hood of my raincoat and left the building. The rain intensified. I, as a shadow, cut through the curtain of rain that fell over Dark City. The sound of my footsteps echoed thorugh the solitude of the deserted City. Perhaps I was so accustomed to being alone that I didn't notice the form that came in my direction.

It collided with me with force and both of us fell to the wet ground. I looked with much surprise for the "visitor". It was a small, lanky form. I took some time to understand that it was a child.

What was a child doing in Dark City?

I stretched out my arm in its direction. The child looked at me with terror and it let out a scream. I should admit that the scream surprised me so much -- and I was already very surprised -- that it made me stay there, immobile, while he got up and ran, far away from me.

After a moment, I got up and I ran after him.

======

David ran frightened through the deserted streets. Frightened of those boys that wanted to hurt him. Frightened of that frightening City. Then he collided with the Ghost. Two nights before the party by the pool, Martin had told him about the Ghosts, faceless beings that scared and hurt the Orga. The faceless being, with the body in the form of a flying cape, matched Martin's description.

When the Ghost stretched out its arm -- that looked claw-like -- in his direction, the cybernetic boy screamed with fear and ran. He heard footsteps behind him. David looked behind and he saw the tall and gloomy faceless form running behind him.

"Stop!" The ghost ordered, but the boy was too terrified. He didn't want to get hurt anymore. He wanted to be safe.

Trembling with fear, David entered an alley and hid somewhere. He prayed that the Ghost wouldn't find him...

======

I ran until I had lost him from my view. I stopped in the rain, trying to decide what to do. I had to find him. I wanted to know that he was doing here...

I scanned the entire Dark City - all its structure, all of its internal processes. Then I detected an anomalous point nearby. It had to be the child.

Slowly, I entered the alley and I went into its darkest corner. Among some abandoned boxes, a heap of dirty cloth trembled. With a quick movement of my hand, I pulled up the cloth, revealing the unexpected child. It was a boy with blond hair and beautiful blue eyes, who was shaking, and it was not due to the rain.

"Please, don't hurt me! Please!" He implored, shrinking with fear while my shadow hovered over him.

Something inside of me was very disturbed with that request: why would he think I would hurt him?

"I don't want to do you harm." I affirmed softly.

Distrust joined the fear.

"But the Ghosts always want to hurt people."

"But I am not a ghost." And I removed my hood, revealing my pale face. The boy looked at me, surprised with the revelation. I asked, as kindly as I could:

"What is your name?"

A whole minute passed before he answered.

"D-David."

I smiled, trying calm him down. "Beautiful name, David. My name is Jer... Jem." He still looked me with fear when I extended my hand. "You must be cold. Would you like to go somewhere where you could be dry and warm?"

"Are you going me to hurt me?"

"I will not."

His blue eyes, with a innocent brightness mixed with fear, looked timidly in my own.

"Do you promise?"

Something in that innocent brightness touched me... in a way that didn't get to understand or remember.

"I promise." I said.

He timidly caught my hand and got up from his hiding place. I placed my raincoat over him, as a mantle. I adjusted my hood and we disappeared from that alley.

* * *

To be continued...

What do you think?

Please, read and review! :-)


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